"The shift to Pune will provide work-life balance. We work 80-100 hours a week and Mumbai’s difficult commutes just add to the stress," says Aulbur.

Wilfried Aulbur, managing partner, Roland Berger Strategy Consultants, has just completed a major project -- he's moved the headquarters of his firm out of Mumbai. The German firm still keeps a small office in the country's commercial capital, but many of its consultants, including Aulbur, have now relocated to Pune. Since it operates in the manufacturing space, Roland Berger has several clients in Pune's industrial belt, but Aulbur's decision is not based on business imperatives alone. It's about larger issues.

"The shift to Pune will provide work-life balance," he says. "We work 80-100 hours a week and Mumbai's difficult commutes just add to the stress. People need to be able to spend some time at home with their kids. I think of this as an impactful decision."

For Aulbur, Pune is home. Prior to joining Roland Berger in 2011, he was the managing director of Mercedez-Benz India, at a time when the automobile major was investing 100 million euro in expanding its manufacturing facilities in Chakan. He then lived in a bungalow in Koregaon Park, a neighborhood he has returned to after three years. How does it compare with his recently vacated apartment in Bandra? "The big difference is in the open spaces and traffic. And I have very good friends in Pune," he says.

Not surprising, given that Pune is home to 180 German companies. The city has the country's largest concentration of German expats and a very active Indo-German Chamber of Commerce. "The Chamber is a good place to meet people, make friends. It is full of Indophiles, who love the culture of this country," says Aulbur, who has a special place within the set, since he happens to be married to an Indian.

Indeed, the first time he came to India was for his engagement to Rekha Srinivasan, a fellow student at Ohio State University. This was 1994 and Aulbur was then working on his doctoral thesis in solid state physics and she was doing her PhD in textile chemistry.

After the ceremonies in Chennai, the couple took off on a tour of South India in a rented Ambassador. "I felt totally at home here, right from the beginning," he says. "I have never considered myself to be an expatriate in India. For all purposes, I am equally German, American and Indian."

Eight years later, Aulbur was back as the head of a new R&D centre being set up by Mercedes-Benz in Bangalore. Two years later, the German automobile major transferred him to its headquarters in Stuttgart, where he was heading the CEO's office. The best thing about Stuttgart, he says, is the city's open spaces, where he would go for a run or go cycling, which he counts among his favourite outdoor activities. "German cities are very well integrated with the environment," he says. "I lived in the city centre, but I could get out easily and be in the surrounding forests in no time."

How did he adjust to the work culture in Pune after his three years in Stuttgart? "I found the people in Mercedes-Benz India to be more German than me," says Aulbur. "They were very structured in their thinking, very efficiency-oriented. Not just the managers and engineers, but workers too." Aulbur's stint as the CEO of Mercedes-Benz India saw him visiting mining towns in the interiors, where the company was opening dealerships for its range of trucks and buses. What did he learn? "Some cultures plan a lot, but India teaches you to be flexible. That's a very useful skill to have in today's uncertain global environment," he says.